Harare
residents sell water on black market

HARARE - Harare’s water shortages
are coming as a blessing for some enterprising residents, who have opened
their own black market niche.

Combined Harare Residents Association
(Chra) executive director Mfundo Mlilo confirmed receiving reports of hordes
of youths taking advantage of the situation to make a few more
dollars.

“We have received reports from Budiriro, Kuwadzana and Mabvuku
of unidentified youths taking advantage of the desperate situation to sell
water on the black market.

We also understand there have been cases
although unreported of fistfights because there are just not enough
boreholes to go by,” Mlilo told the Daily News on Sunday.

He added
that Chra would demand from government to declare the water situation in the
country a national disaster.

“This should prompt the international
community to help. The City of Harare loses half of its water through
leakages, gets 50 percent of its revenue from water but does not have a long
term plan to solve the water crisis.

“And now that this issue has taken a
national dimension, we believe government must now come and help with
strategic planning to arrest the problem,” said Mlilo.

Harare Town
Clerk Tendai Mahachi refused to comment, referring questions to council
spokesperson Leslie Gwindi who was unavailable.

At the height of
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, almost every commodity, except water, was sold
on the black market.

Harare’s suburbs have suffered from water shortages
for years but the problem seemed to deepen in recent weeks.

The Daily
News on Sunday visited Budiriro, Mufakose and Glen Norah where long queues
at churches, schools and industrial sites have surfaced.

“They are
selling water at kwaMhishi at the far western end of Mufakose. How are we
supposed to survive in a situation like this?”

At a house in Mufakose,
water obtained from a fertiliser manufacturing company near the suburb was
clearly on the market.

A two-litre container was going for five rand, for
10 litres one has to part with $2 while 20 litres went for $4.

In
Glen Norah, residents were fetching water from shallow wells while water was
on sale at a Zanu PF-aligned cooperative between the suburb and Glen
View1.

Harare caters for almost five million residents inclusive of
the dormitory town of Chitungwiza and the satellite Ruwa.

Tsvangirai
threatens to pull out coalition with Mugabe

Zimbabwe Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of the coalition government he
formed with President Robert Mugabe four years ago citing violence against
his supporters.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader who
temporarily walked out of the shaky coalition in 2009, made the threat on
Saturday during a memorial service for his over 200 supporters killed in the
last presidential elections.

He said he would soon convene a meeting
of his party’s decision making body to consider the pull out.

“I am
pained. My message to (President) Mugabe is that we can’t pretend to be
working together when violence is taking place,” Mr Tsvangirai was quoted
saying by the privately owned The Standard newspaper.

“I am going to
call an emergency council meeting to see if it is worth it to continue in
the government of national unity.“Shall we continue to turn a blind eye when
my supporters are being tortured, when diamonds are being looted?”He
said he would also confront President Mugabe who is pushing for general
elections in March next year without reforms demanded by regional
leaders.

Mr Tsvangirai beat the 88 year-old leader in the first round of
the presidential elections but was forced to drop from the run-off poll
because of political violence largely blamed on security forces.

“I
will confront him and look him in the eye to see if he still wants the unity
government to continue,” he said. “We are sick and tired of
hypocrites.”

Last week, the MDC accused Zanu PF members of attacking
its supporters who were travelling to the second city of Bulawayo for the
party’s 13th anniversary celebrations.

Soldiers were also accused of
attacking supporters of the other MDC formation led by Professor Welshman
Ncube after he held a rally in Mashonaland East a fortnight
ago.

Power-sharing deal

Mr Tsvangirai says he fears next year’s
elections would me marred by violence.“I will not step on dead bodies to
State House, as long as I am living and as long as I am MDC president I will
not walk past burnt houses to State House,” he said.

“We have
politicians who shed crocodile tears like (President) Mugabe.

“He
denounces violence. That’s hypocrisy we do not want. If he is serious, why
can’t he stop that violence instead of just saying it without any
action?”

President Mugabe has been calling for elections since last
year saying the inclusive government had become dysfunctional.

But
Southern African Development Community leaders – the guarantors of the power
sharing deal – have been insisting on reforms before the polls to avoid the
bloodshed that marred the last elections.

Mugabe
loses grip

President Robert
MugabeHARARE - President Robert Mugabe has made a complete revolution from
demanding a 2012 election to begging for a delay, until at least March 2013,
revealing his lack of power under the coalition to unilaterally impose his
will.

Despite macho public statements declaring that elections would
be held this year with or without reforms and consent from other
stakeholders, events in recent weeks have unmasked how the veteran ruler is
powerless to act unilaterally.

Fighting old age and reports of
ill-health, an early election for Mugabe would be ideal when he can still
withstand a rigorous campaign trail.

Obstacles being thrown by coalition
partners and devastating infighting that has left his Zanu PF ill-prepared
for a poll are revealing Mugabe as a man held captive on several
fronts.

Starting the year on a virile campaign for elections this year,
Mugabe is ending 2012 with a whimper.

His desperate pleas for the
courts to delay elections and the hasty manner in which he moved to break a
deadlock on the stalled new constitution by agreeing to a Second
All-Stakeholders meeting prove Mugabe is hostage to the coalition government
and the regional Sadc body, apart from Zanu PF infighting.

Mugabe has quickly backed down each time a dispute
in the coalition government has been referred to the regional bloc Sadc, the
guarantors of the Harare power-sharing deal.

Mugabe’s successive
climb downs have given fodder to his rivals that he was
prevaricating.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai accuses him of
kowtowing to security commanders and his party’s politburo by shifting
positions several times on elections.

The MDC leader says despite the
posturing, Mugabe has always known that elections will only take place after
fundamental reforms have been completed and after securing consensus from
all Principals in the ruling coalition.

Mugabe has been demanding
elections in 2012, a year ahead of schedule, arguing the coalition
government he formed in 2009 with Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara was now “dysfunctional”.

It all started in June 2010,
when Mugabe’s Zanu PF posted on its website a statement headlined “Elections
inevitable,” saying there was unacceptable friction in the fragile coalition
— which Mugabe had saidwas like water and oil.

A campaign pushing for
fresh elections ostensibly because the coalition’s two-year mandate had
expired ensued.

This was outrightly rejected by Tsvangirai and Mutambara,
who both said the coalition did not have a sunset clause, forcing Mugabe to
back down.

In 2011, Mugabe again insisted elections would be held in
early 2012.

“We cannot go beyond March next year,” he told a September
2011 meeting of his Zanu PF. “I will definitely announce that (election)
date. It does not matter what anyone would say. Once I announce the date,
everyone will follow,” said Mugabe.

How times change.

After
spending the whole of 2012 demanding elections, the former guerrilla leader
has changed tune and unmasked himself by challenging three former MDC
legislators who went to court to force him to proclaim by-election dates in
their constituencies.

Agreeing to the former MPs’ demands would have
resulted in a mini-general election as there are about 200 vacant
parliamentary and municipal seats countrywide.

Mugabe pleaded with
the court to grant him more time, saying the earliest he can announce
election dates would be in March next year.

Judge President George
Chiweshe granted Mugabe’s wish, which is closer to what his coalition
partners have insisted on all along — that elections are only possible in
2013.

Cash shortages and pressure from regional bloc Sadc, whose
mediation is being led by South Africa president Jacob Zuma, have forced the
veteran ruler to reluctantly stick to the deal to ensure free and fair
elections and then handover power peacefully if he loses the forthcoming
poll.

While earlier Mugabe accused the two MDCs of dragging their feet
over a deadlock around the crafting of a new constitution expected to pave
way for fresh polls, the veteran ruler has climbed down on that deadlock as
well.

He temporarily shelved his demand to make over 200 amendments to a
draft constitution seen as whittling down presidential powers and
strengthening the role of Parliament.

A mini-regional summit of the
Sadc troika organ to resolve the constitutional deadlock was scheduled for
Dar es Salaam this weekend in Tanzania, but the meeting was called off after
Mugabe hastily climbed down ahead of the summit.

Sadc has already
emphasised the need to stage a violence-free All-Stakeholders conference
that has been tentatively scheduled for October 21 to 23, according to
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric
Matinenga.

According to the power-sharing Global Political Agreement, the
coalition government must complete the constitutional reform exercise and
other important political, security and electoral reforms before going for
fresh polls. It is not clear when elections, which Mugabe wants in the last
week of March, can be held as the two MDCs say the country will only be
ready for fresh polls by June 2013.

Douglas Mwonzora, spokesperson
for Tsvangirai’s MDC, said the March date was “unilateral, unrealistic and
has no scientific or legal basis”.

“For us to meet those dates, Zanu PF
has to change drastically,” he said.

“We want elections to be held in
conditions which allow the secrecy of the vote and the security of both the
vote and the voter,” said Mwonzora.

Alex Magaisa, a lawyer and academic,
currently a senior lecturer at Kent Law School at the University of Kent in
the United Kingdom, said it seems there has been a general misreading of the
High Court decision and its implications on the timing of next year’s
general elections.

“It does not follow that the general elections will be
held before the end of March 20,” he said.

“It only means the
President must comply with the order by the end of March 2013 and the order
is to set dates for the elections. It is important in this regard to note
that the process of setting the date for nominations and the polling date in
accordance with section 38 of the Electoral Act can take up to 10 weeks.
Therefore, the general elections could well be in early June
2013.”

Lovemore Madhuku, head of pressure group National
Constitutional Assembly has previously said all this was part of Mugabe’s
strategy of managing both the internal dynamics within Zanu PF, and the
outside ones, with the MDC, by creating “a sense of uncertainty”. - Gift
Phiri

Ncube,
who is also the former Zipra Veterans Trust Chairperson, was served with his
expulsion letter last week.

Ncube‘s expulsion letter follows a meeting of
the party’s National Executive Committee in Gweru on 29
September.

Ncube is being accused of writing a letter directly to the
party President, Dumiso Dabengwa, outlining some of the challenges the party
is facing in the province.

“Please be informed that you have by your
aforesaid conduct automatically expelled from the party .You addressed a
letter to the party President raising certain issues and concerns which you
claimed to have discussed with Bulawayo districts and all wings of the
province at the inter-district meeting,” reads part of the suspension letter
from the party’s United Kingdom based secretary general, Ralph
Mguni.

Ncube was last year suspended from the party and later reinstated
.He was accused of making unilateral decisions in the running of the
province.

The party, which was revived three years ago, has been
suffering serious financial woes and divisions.

Zapu was recently
evicted from its national headquarters following a High Court writ of
execution order following its failure to settle its rentals which had
ballooned to $9 000.

Dabengwa has repeatedly urged party members to
donate their livestock to save the party from total
collapse.

Dabengwa and some members of the national executive members
have also been accused of having strong links with Zanu (PF), charges which
the former intelligence supremo has refuted.

Repeated efforts to get
a comment from Ncube were all in vein as his mobile phone was not reachable.

New
wave of politcal violence in Masvingo

A fresh wave of political violence
has hit Masvingo province, with scores of MDC-T supporters nursing injuries
after they were separately petrol-bombed and beaten up in Zaka Central
constituency on Tuesday .07.10.1205:15pm

by Regerai
Tukutuku

The violence erupted when a house belonging to Nelson
Vhudzijena from Mashingaidze Village under Chief Ndanga was petrol-bombed by
suspected Zanu (PF) supporters during the night, leaving Vhudzijena and his
wife, Eveline Havazi, injured.

The two are currently battling for
life at Musiso Hospital in Zaka after sustaining serious burns during the
incident.

MDC-T Masvingo provincial spokesman, Harrison Mudzuri, who is
also the Zaka Central legislator, said the couple had refused to attend a
Zanu (PF) rally in the area, arguing that they supported the MDC formation
of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

MDC-T national executive member,
Jefreyson Chitando, told The Zimbabwean that the situation in Zaka was tense
following the incident.

"As we speak, two of our supporters are in
hospital after they refused to attend a Zanu (PF) rally", said
Chitando.

"The political temperature is now high in Zaka and I hope the
law enforcement agents will act accordingly", added Chitando. Scores of
MDC-T supporters in Masvingo North constituency were on Wednesday beaten up
and left for dead at Chikarudzo business centre when a group of soldiers
waylaid them when they were coming from an MDC-T ward meeting.

One of
the victims, Alfred Leokay, said he was beaten and left for dead. “I was
beaten severely and am finding it difficult to walk," he added. Police in
Masvingo confirmed the incident but said investigations were in progress.
Zanu (PF) Masvingo Provincial Chairman, Lovemore Matuke, said he was not
aware of the incident.

Officials from the Joint Monitoring and
Implementation Committee (Jomic) met with the police over the latest
incidents of violence in the province.

ICT
cornertsone of economic development - Tsvangirai

Prime Minster Morgan Tsvangirai says
Information Communication and Technology (ICT) is the cornerstone of
economic development in the country.Officially opening the e-tech Africa
conference and Exhibition today the premier said ICT should at the forefront
of spearheading other developments.“In fact the argument in our economic
development policy is can we grow all the sectors at one time? The answer is
No. Can we identify a sector that is going to spearhead economic
development? Yes we can. I think that in identifying ICT to be at the
forefront of spearheading other developments we will be developing the rest
of the economy,” Tsvangirai said.Tsvangirai said government has adopted a
policy that makes ICT a central hub.“As government we have adopted a
policy to make ICT a central hub to connect the Medium Term Plan, the
Millennium development Goals (MDGs) and other programmes that bring social
change to the people of Zimbabwe.”The premier said ICT is supposed to play a
role in societal transformation adding that the “exhibition is highlight to
the importance of developing a conscious ICT policy.”Dozens of ICT based
companies including Telecel, Powertel, Potraz Zimbabwe, and Zarnet exhibited
at the conference.The Information Communication Technology Minister Nelson
Chamisa said there is need to reduce the cost of ICT services.“We are
not where we want to be in terms of the cost and the price and the quality
of service. These are issues that are always under construction,” Chamisa
said.Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said he was impressed by the
quality of the exhibits that were exhibited.“I am so impressed by what l
have seen here the level of sophistication and the quality of exhibits is
very outstanding so l must congratulate you for a wonderful display of ICT,”
Mutambara said.

Dlamini-Zuma
set up to fail at African Union: Mbeki

Newly elected African Union (AU) chairwoman Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma has been set up to fail in her new position, former President
Thabo Mbeki said in a media report on Sunday.

"I think part of this
feeling that she is going to change [things] is the failure to understand
how the AU operates. People might put a big burden on her shoulders
expecting her to do this and that and when it doesn't happen, they will
blame her when actually she has no capacity to do these things," Mbeki told
the Sunday Independent.

The former president said AU policies did not
originate from the AU Commission, which Dlamini-Zuma heads.

Mbeki
said the AU depended on policy made by individual nations, with the
commission only able to try and persuade them.

"You have to be able
to intervene with the governments in a manner that encourages them," Mbeki
said.

He said the AU had appointed a former head-of-state, Malian
President Alpha Konare, for this reason.

"The reasoning was that once
you have a former head of state sitting in this position of chair; he will
have sufficient influence over his former peers," Mbeki said. "It didn't
work."

Mbeki said Konare asked not to be re-appointed to the position at
the end of his term.

"The people should not raise expectation with
regard to the appointment of Nkosazana, which expectations will be
disappointed," Mbeki said.

Upfumi
Kuvadiki clashes with GMB

Scott Sakupwanya, the group’s
president wrote to Albert Mandizha, the GMB general manager demanding an
explanation as to why the state-owned grain company has engaged a Pakistani
miller instead of locals.

In a letter to the GMB boss, Sakupwanya says
the state grain stocker is disregarding national laws through awarding
tenders to foreigners.

Under the indigenisation regulations the milling
industry is preserved for black Zimbabweans.

“We simply do not
understand why locally grown wheat be milled by a Pakistani for local
consumers at a whooping cost of one million (dollars) which is likely to be
repatriated out of the country.

“We submit that the milling sector
together with other sectors be reserved for the previously marginalised
people,” said Sakupwanya.

He further said the continuation of awarding
such tender to foreigners is a clear violation of the country’s black
empowerment laws and it would force his organisation to seek assistance from
government.

Upfumi Kuvadiki last year, took the law into its hands
demanding a stake in Easipark claiming the South African-Harare City Council
formed company should include its members in managing parking in the
city.

Foreigners such as Nigerians and Chinese who occupy the retail
sector have also came under attack from the group.

Efforts to get a
comment from Mandizha were fruitless as his mobile phone was unavailable. -
Xolisani Ncube

Stink
amid splendour

Sunday, 07 October 2012 12:40HARARE - A rivulet of
stinking slime flows through the back of one of the biggest food outlets at
Harare’s upmarket Avondale Shopping Centre.

The repulsive stink at the
back of this supposedly trendy shopping centre is in sharp contrast to the
aroma that breezes from the front where there is a fast food and ice cream
outlet, two supermarkets run by retail giants, a coffee and pizza joint and
a pharmacy among other classy businesses.

The situation at Avondale
mirrors how food and grocery companies in Zimbabwe are found wanting when it
comes to meeting best practices as required by health and environment
officials.

These companies have conveniently chosen to ignore the word
“green” as they chase profits, conservationists say.

Although
different companies in the world are increasingly going green, Zimbabwean
food companies are lagging behind.

“We expect companies to commit resources towards proper waste
disposal. The social responsibility is seen as a compensatory measure for
the profit they are making out of that community. Big companies like food
chains must also engage in clean-up campaigns and other environmental
awareness programmes. The longer they continue polluting our streams the
more resources we will need towards the purification of water,” Shumba
says.

According to the Environmental Management Agency (Ema), companies
causing environmental hazard should be fined or cease operations. - Bridget
Mananavire

Hurungwe’s
enemy within

Sunday, 07 October 2012 12:39HURUNGWE - He is among the few
foot soldiers taking the bull by its horns to fight for a better environment
among farmers whose livelihood depends on tobacco farming.

Tobacco
farming has transformed the lives of resettled farmers here but with a dent
on nature.

This explains why Edward Musaniwa Chikwapuro is regarded as a
thorn in the flesh by fellow villagers.

His passion for nature is
contributing towards the restoration of standards in the green forest around
Hurungwe Rural Council’s Ward One in Hilltop Village.

Due to the
71-year-old’s commitment to bring to book suspects who are usually fellow
villagers, he has become an “enemy of development” and fellow villagers view
him with disdain.

Some are resorting to overstepping fire guards and
starting fires at night but he is not losing hope despite it being a
“thankless” job. “We must work together and see to it that our grandchildren
know that honey comes from bees. Why should we destroy nature?” he tells the
Daily News on Sunday.

Situated about 40 km along Karoi-Chirundu, Hilltop
or Warikandamurume resettlement area was established in 2002 after Hurungwe
District Council evicted villagers to pave way for the construction of
Magunje Dam.

Settled here among new farmers, Chikwapuro remains an
epitome of determination in forest conservation though on a voluntary
basis.

Married and looking after seven grandchildren whose parents have
since died, his love for nature is written all over his face when he talks
about the subject.

“I am worried that only a few resettled farmers
are taking heed not to destroy trees which they use to cure their tobacco.
We advocate for a better future and efforts to curb unwarranted veld fires
that destroy nature including birds and bees,” he says.

“Our animals
including cattle are affected as there is no grass. We are our own enemies,”
he says.

Chikwapuro is among four village environment management monitors
covering an area with over 5 000 villagers.

“I used to have a
motorbike following up wherever fires started but it broke down three years
ago. I cannot afford to have it repaired,” he says.

Chikwapuro covers a
distance of over 15 km daily spreading the word against veld fires and this
has been a routine for the past five years. “I enjoy it,” he
says.

His heart bleeds as more villagers are starting off the tobacco
seedbeds along Rukomechi River for their next tobacco season.

“The
chemicals they use affect the river water. We teach them to be at least 30
meters away from the river to avoid siltation but it is a challenge. We will
advocate for them to be arrested, even if it means they go to jail.

What a party – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary: 6th October 2012

This week sees the
10th anniversary of the Vigil, which was launched on 12th
October 2002. Since then we have met every Saturday (except when it fell on
Christmas day, when there is no one around in central London to demonstrate to).
The Observer newspaper described us as the largest regular demonstration in
London.

Not that we were very large today as
some of our supporters were drawn to other functions, principally the MDC’s
13th anniversary social in Slough, west London. Fraternal greetings
to the MDC but our own view of their achievements is summed up by the latest
article by the Botswana-exiled Zimbabwean journalist and SW Radio Africa
commentator Tanonoka Joseph Whande. He says ‘What's there to celebrate? To make
matters worse, Tsvangirai promised the people free and fair elections. Who is he
kidding? Where does he get the powers to stage such when Mugabe refuses to clean
up the voters' roll on which Ian Smith still appears? When ZANU-PF vigilante
groups are sprouting in every town?’ (see: http://www.swradioafrica.com/2012/10/04/tanonoka-joseph-whande-mdc-t-is-taking-people-too-much-for-granted/– Tanonoka
Joseph Whande - MDC-T Is Taking People Too Much for
Granted).

While the MDC celebrated in
Slough, we kept the Vigil going outside the Embassy. Why? Tanonoka spells it out
well but so does Nevanji
Madanhire who asks, in the Standard, if the current looting continues ‘what will
be left of the country for our children?’ (See: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/oct2_2012.html#Z21
– Editor’s Desk: Immediate gain behind plunder).

On the basis of our
intimate acquaintance with Zimbabwean crap, we can mention a few other emerging
sports: sychronised looting, certainly. Sychronised wives as well, and what
about sychronised being ‘unavailable’ when something needs to be synchronized;
like receiving the SADC delegates in JOMIC?

Unlike the MDC
celebrating their optimism we will be gathering after next week’s Vigil to mourn
the need for our continued existence and reflect on the way forward in what we
see as a very long struggle before there is freedom in Zimbabwe (for details see
‘Events and Notices’ below).

Other points

·Our thanks to Sheron
Makhosi Bhebhe and Elijah Bhebhe who were there at the start to help set up the
Vigil. Thanks also to Sheron and to Mary Muteyerwa who stepped in to take care
of the Vigil front table in the absence of Vigil regulars.

·We were pleased to be
able to send $90 to Bernard Hukwa’s widow. This was money left over from
donations from Vigil supporters after the repatriation of Bernard’s body had
been paid for.

·There seemed to be a
more than the usual number of groups in London in fancy dress. We were visited
by some very colourful parrots and a group in orange boiler suits with ‘LBS
Psycho Ward’ on their backs who joined in the dancing..

For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website – they
cannot be downloaded from the slideshow on the front page of the Zimvigil
website.

FOR THE
RECORD: 37 signed the
register.

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

·10th
Anniversary of the Zimbabwe Vigil / Zimbabwe Action Forum
(ZAF). Saturday
13th October from 6.30 – 9.30 pm. Venue: Strand Continental Hotel
(first floor lounge), 143 Strand, London WC2R 1JA. Directions: The Strand is the
same road as the Vigil. From the Vigil it’s about a 10 minute walk, in the
direction away from Trafalgar Square. The Strand Continental is situated on the
south side of the Strand between Somerset House and the turn off onto Waterloo
Bridge. The entrance is marked by a big sign high above and a sign for its
famous Indian restaurant at street level. It's next to a newsagent. Nearest
underground: Temple (District and Circle lines) and Holborn. Future special
ZAF meeting: Saturday 10th November when our special guest will
be Ben Freeth. This meeting will take the place of the regular ZAF meeting in
November at 6.30 pm at Strand Continental Hotel (first floor lounge), 143
Strand, London WC2R 1JA. For directions see above.

·The Restoration of
Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s
partner organisation based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil
to have an organisation on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s
mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through
membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in
Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other
website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents the
views and opinions of ROHR.

·ZBN
News. The Vigil
management team wishes to make it clear that the Zimbabwe Vigil is not
responsible for Zimbabwe Broadcasting Network News (ZBN News). We are happy that
they attend our activities and provide television coverage but we have no
control over them. All enquiries about ZBN News should be addressed to ZBN News.

The Vigil, outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.

COURT WATCH 18/2012 of 6th October [Current Supreme Court Cases]

COURT WATCH 18/2012

[6th October 2012]

Current Supreme Court Cases

Anglican Church Cases for Supreme Court

During the week beginning Monday 22nd October the Supreme Court will
deal with seven appeals on court cases between the mainstream Anglican Church
recognised world wide and a breakaway local church.Dr NolbertKunonga previously Bishop of Harare, broke away from the
Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa to set up his own new Province
of Zimbabwe and has taken over much Anglican church property although the
Anglican world body no longer recognised him as Bishop of Harare.The recognised Anglican Church continued
under a legitimate elected Bishop of Harare – first Bishop Sebastian Bakare and now Bishop Chad Gandiya.The cases
involve the property of the Anglican Church owned by the Church of the Province
of Central Africa and hitherto administered by a board of trustees chaired by
the Bishop of Harare. The whole week has been allocated to these appeals, which
will be heard one after the other.

The
President v The Prime Minister – the Provincial Governors
case

ReminderThis case dates from November 2010, when the
Prime Minister went to the High Court to challenge the constitutionality of
President’s unilateral appointment of provincial governors.The President’s
lawyer raised a preliminary procedural objection to the Prime Minister suing the
President without first getting the leave of a High Court judge to do so.High Court Judge-President Chiweshe overruled
this objection, taking the view that the rule of court cited by the President
was not applicable to legal action against the President in his official
capacity;he also refused to allow the
President to appeal to the Supreme Court, pointing out that the Supreme Court
had decided the point in another case in 2000.Dissatisfied with this decision, the President, as he was entitled to do,
applied to the Chief Justice for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on the
procedural point.[see
Court Watch 14/2012 of 28th July and 15/2012 of 24th August]

Chief
Justice allows President to appealOn
19th September Chief Justice Chidyausiku granted the President leave to appeal
to the Supreme Court.This was with the
consent of the Prime Minister, who through his lawyers withdrew his initial
opposition to the appeal going ahead.The Chief Justice will be handing down a judgment setting out his reasons
for granting leave to appeal, i.e., explaining why the procedural point needs to
be re-considered by the Supreme Court.

EffectThis
means there will now be a full appeal before the Supreme Court on the
procedural objection only.It will
inevitably take time for that appeal to be heard and decided, making a ruling
before the end of the year most unlikely.And if the Supreme Court eventually upholds the President’s objection,
that will probably be the end of the Prime Minister’s case – by then there may
be little or no practical value in having a court ruling invalidating the
President’s appointment of the provincial governors.

Other
Supreme Court Cases: Hearings Delayed

Mutambara
v Ncube – MDC Leadership Dispute:Hearing Delayed

Reminder:Two appeals about the leadership of the MDC await hearing in the
Supreme Court.Professor Mutambara and a
group of his supporters are asking the Supreme Court to reverse High Court
decisions confirming the January 2011 election of Professor Welshman Ncube as
leader of the party.[See Court Watch 14/2012 of 28th July.]

Preliminary
point raised by Ncube sideThe Supreme Court’s rules of procedure
require an appellant to provide security for the legal costs of the other side
should the Supreme Court in due course turn down the appeal and order the
appellant to pay the other side’s costs.The Ncube side’s lawyers have taken the point that the appeals cannot go
ahead because the appellants – the Mutambara camp – did not comply with this
requirement when filing their appeals.The Mutambara side’s lawyers say that their written undertaking to bear
costs if ordered to do so was sufficient compliance with the rule and pointed
out that there had been such a long delay from the other side in querying the
undertaking that it was now too late to raise this issue.Chief Justice Chidyausiku heard legal
argument from both sides in chambers on 26th September and reserved judgment
until a later date.

Private
Member’s Bills case postponed: Minister Chombo v
Parliament

Reminder:In this case Minister of Local Government,
Rural and Urban Development Ignatious Chombo has asked
the Supreme Court to bar the Urban Councils Amendment Bill, a Private Member’s
bill, from being considered by Parliament.The Bill would, if passed, severely restrict the present wide powers of
the Minister over local authorities.The
contention on behalf of the Minister is that Article 20 of the GPA, as set out
in Schedule 8 to the Constitution, prohibits all Private Member’s Bills during
the subsistence of the GPA.[See
Bill Watch 20 and 21 of 15th May 2012]The
Clerk and Parliament’s presiding officers, cited as respondents in the
Minister’s court papers, lodged papers opposing the application.

Appeal
hearing postponed:The court postponed the hearing due on 27th
September.The reason for this was that
the judges felt the Minister should have cited the mover and seconder of the
Bill in the House of Assembly as respondents to the appeal, in addition to the
Clerk, the Speaker and the President of the Senate, as they should also have an
opportunity to state their position on the Minister’s application.The Minister’s lawyers have since served the
necessary papers on the two MDC-T MPs concerned, and their responses are being
processed.A date for the resumption of
the hearing is still to be fixed.

Comment:
In deference to Parliament’s sub judice rule, the Bill
remains stalled in Parliament pending the Supreme Court’s decision.Unfortunately this has also stalled two
other Private Member’s Bills, one to amend the Public Order and Security Act
[POSA] and the other to repeal section 121(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence
Act.This is a great pity as
getting these through Parliament would go a little way towards the reforms
necessary before the next elections.

Reminder:The
Supreme Court was asked to determine whether the constitutional rights of MDC-T MP Douglas Mwonzora and his
twenty-one co accused were violated while they were in detention in February and
March 2011.The accused were arrested
and detained on allegations of public violence in contravention of section
36(1)(a) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act [the Criminal Law
Code].The incident leading to these
charges followed an MDC-T
meeting addressed by Mr Mwonzora in his Nyanga North constituency.The accused say they were held incommunicado
in illegal solitary confinement, assaulted, prevented from seeing their lawyers
and denied food, water and medical attention for the three days that they were
held in police custody. They were in remand prison for nearly three weeks after
the State invoked section 121(3) of the CPE Act to prevent the operation of the
bail order that the magistrate had granted.During this period of incarceration the health of one of the accused,
Headman Nyakauru, aged 82, deteriorated significantly
and his condition was aggravated by denial of access to private medical
attention; he died shortly after his release.

The constitutional
issuesThe constitutional issues before the court are: the complaints of inhuman and degrading treatment, and violation of
constitutional rights to liberty and protection of the law as enshrined in
sections 15, 13 and 18 of the Constitution and the constitutionality of section 121 (3) of the
CPE Act.The main remedy asked for, as
in the Jestina Mukoko case, is the stopping of the prosecution.

Case postponed for further
evidenceThe Supreme Court hearing was due on 20th September 2012 but did not
proceed.It was postponed indefinitely
to allow further evidence to be filed on behalf of Mr Mwonzora and the other
accused persons about the treatment to which they were subjected.

Comment:As Mr Mwonzora and his co-accused are asking
the Supreme Court to stop the prosecution, the Supreme Court’s judgment in the
Mukoko case, handed down on 20th September [see Court
Watch 17/2012 of 4th October] will influence
how this case is argued when the hearing resumes and how it is decided by the
Supreme Court.

“Goblin”/Freedom
of speech case – Prosecution for insulting the President:

Reminder:In this case Douglas Mwonzora MP is
prosecuted with insulting the President in contravention of section 33 of the
Criminal Law Code.Many others,
including foreign visitors to Zimbabwe, have found themselves facing similar
charges in the magistrates courts.Section 33 criminalises publicly making statements that may cause
feelings of hostility towards, or cause hatred, ridicule or contempt of, the
President – whether in person or “in
respect of the office of President”.The maximum penalty on conviction is a fine of $300 or six months in
prison or both.

Mr
Mwonzora is alleged to have compared the President to a goblin in the course of
a speech at a rally in Nyanga in March 2009.He successfully petitioned the magistrate to have the matter referred to
the Supreme Court for a ruling on the constitutionality of section 33, claiming
that it infringes the constitutional rights to freedom of speech, assembly and
thought, is too broad and vague to qualify as a law and is not reasonably
justifiable in a democratic society – particularly so when the President is a
highly political figure.

Case
postponed:These issues were expected to be thrashed out
in argument before the Supreme Court on 4th October.But the State’s heads of argument, i.e. the
written summary of its argument and the legal precedents to be cited, had not
been filed in advance of the hearing as required by the rules of court.The court therefore indefinitely postponed
the hearing until the heads of argument have been filed.

Comment
– It is a pity that this important case has had to be postponed in view of the
many others in which people have been and are still being taken to court for
this offence.Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights are handling 38 such cases.Section 33 of the Criminal Law Code is one of several provisions in the
Code that have prompted civil society calls for repeal or rewriting in the
interests of certainty and clarity in the law.

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